The Chappel Memorial Lecture Series
The prestigious Chappel Memorial Lecture series invites internationally renowned scientists from human and veterinary medicine and the biomedical sciences to present their work to the University of Guelph community.
About the Chappel Memorial Lecture Series
The Chappel Memorial Lecture Series was established in 1987 through an endowment from Ontario Veterinary College graduate Dr. Clifford Chappel and his wife in memory of his father Herbert James Chappel. Held annually since 1988, the Chappel Memorial Lecture Series has hosted numerous internationally known scientists who have inspired University of Guelph graduate students, faculty, and staff to achieve the highest possible goals in basic or applied research and to motivate undergraduate students to consider alternate career paths and become leaders in their profession.
About Dr. Clifford Chappel
Now retired in Oakville, Ontario, Dr. Clifford Chappel had an exemplary career in medical research.
Growing up in Guelph, he graduated from OVC as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) in 1950, and subsequently earned his PhD in Investigative Medicine at McGill University in Montréal.
He launched his career as Director of Biological Research at Ayerst Research Laboratories, where he developed Atravet, the first tranquilizer and preanesthetic designed for veterinary use. Later, working at his own private research firm, Dr. Chappel developed the first animal model for Type 1 diabetes --- “BB” rats. His largest private venture, Bio-Research Laboratories, and two other companies that he founded, remain in operation today.
But Dr. Chappel’s most remarkable achievements have been in identifying and, in some cases, stopping the harm to public health caused by dangerous pharmaceutical, environmental, and biochemical agents. For example, he discovered the damage to cardiac function resulting from the asthma medication isoproterenol. It was later withdrawn from the market. Similarly, he was the first to notice the risk posed to heart health by hormones adrenaline and noradrenaline. This research was foundational to a colleague’s Nobel Prize-winning synthesis of atenolol and propranolol for the treatment of angina.
Dr. Chappel correctly identified the brewing industry’s use of cobalt salts as the cause of dozens of cardiac deaths among the beer-drinking public in Québec alone. Eventually, the use of cobalt in foods or pharmaceuticals would be banned worldwide. Most recently, he discovered that the lead paint used on corrugated steel roofs in the Caribbean was poisoning children whose families relied on eavestroughs and cisterns for potable water. As a result of this investigation, the paint company eliminated lead from its product.
A quiet hero, Dr. Chappel has used his gifts not only to improve life but to save countless lives.
